For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Good morning everyone! It is a cool, cloudy morning here, but we did have another spectacular sunrise today. I did try for some more pics, but I was not too pleased with the results this time. I will check them better later today and perhaps I will show one of them tomorrow. Yesterday was nice and sunny and quite mild, above freezing anyway.
There is supposed to be flurries again today. I remember one cool, cloudy, late fall day. It was late October, no snow on the ground, but it was just slightly above freezing, so I decided to check another area along the railroad for insulators. I was by myself this time and I left fairly early in the morning. I drove down a seldom used trail as far as I could, then parked.

This is not the area of the story, but is another spot I went to another time.
From there I had to walk about 1/4 mile to the tracks, but it was nice easy walking. I got there in good time and began walking east and after half an hour I had found nothing. I was nearly ready to turn back but I came to a high hill and decided to check on top, hills were often good areas to find insulators for some reason. Climbing that hill was not easy though, it was very steep with dry loose soil and rocks.
I slipped many times and nearly fell once, but I finally made it to the top. I did start finding insulators right away and about half way along I spotted a pile of crossarms in among the trees. That was common to do way back, after all, why haul them out of these lonely spots? This turned out to be a great spot, there were more insulators than I could carry out of there.

This is looking the opposite direction of the above photo.
I carefully sorted the insulators and just kept the very best to take with me. I also found one insulator that was very different than the others. They inside threaded part was so different that it would not screw onto the wood pin very well, just part way since the wood pin was too fat to go all the way inside. That was kind of strange.
With the thousands of insulators my dad and I found over the years, we never saw one like this one. On another later trip further down this section of the railway, I found another one of these insulators, but in a different color. They are the only two I ever found. I later discovered they were used back in the 1880s and different wood pins were used for them originally.

This shows an insulator on a pin that would be attached to the side of a pole.
You probably do not know what I am talking about, it is a bit hard to explain. Now, I had to come down that hill, with my backpack quite full of insulators. I looked, picked out what I thought was the best way off that hill and began climbing down. I did not get far and I slipped. The rest of the way down was a bit of a blur, meaning, I fell the rest of the way.
I landed with quite a thud at the bottom and just lay there for a while groaning. Several of the insulators broke, but that odd one survived. My left arm and leg were paining terribly and I thought I might have to leave the insulators behind. After walking just a short distance I decided it would be best to leave most of them and come back another time.

These show regular upright pins with insulators.
So, I kept a dozen and headed back, very slowly. I did make it back okay, though I was 2 hours late, according to the schedule I had left. There was no serious damage done anyway, a few days later I was nearly back to normal.
I did go back and retrieve the insulators I left behind, and found some others as well. But that is a different story. And I was not alone that time. Hmm, the clouds seem to be breaking up a bit, perhaps we will miss those flurries. I hope you all have a great weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Well, it has been 4 weeks now and I still cannot use my legs. It looks like I will not be participating in any cases for a while. So, Annelie is teaching me her job and introducing me to her contacts, just in case I need to take her place suddenly. I will be working with her for a while until her contacts are used to talking with me. Dawn, Karen and Hawk are working out well with the team and getting along with everyone.
That is an important element for good teamwork. They keep practicing with different weapons and learning different fighting techniques. Dawn has been very good at teaching everyone her style of fighting, which basically is no style, it is just very unpredictable fighting. That can be very good at times, it throws off opponents who are expecting a person to react a certain way, but then they do not.
It is a beautiful day so we are all outside and I am watching the progress of everyone. Then Muffin comes over to me and lays down in the shade beside me. Meow,meow.=Me feeling so very tired. I could hear in her voice that she was. Beryan came over because she saw Muffin suddenly leave the other cats. “Are you okay Muffin?” she asked. “She is overtired,” I said, “I do not like that, she may need to go in for a checkup.”
“I will take her,” said Beryan smiling. “Okay, but take Kat and Crystal with you,” I said. She picked up Muffin and got the girls together and took Muffin to see Bridgette. She has become our vet and is very good with the cats. Storm went along with the girls too. Bridgette called and said she was quite worried about Muffin and asked me to send all the cats in for a checkup.
Sky and two of the girls took the remaining cats to see Bridgette and all remained overnight. That night I woke up suddenly and saw a face staring at me. “Do you remember me Steve?” was all the person said. I sat up quickly saying, “Who are you?” That woke up Sky and she turned the light on. I had my gun out already and Sky grabbed her gun too.
“What is it Steve?” she asked. “Someone was in the room,” I said, and then I pressed a button on the table by my bed. “Red Alert, Intruder, Red Alert, Intruder!”, and the whole house was sealed off. “Rock, Mac, check the library,” I said, “everyone else, check every room!” No one was found however. “Maybe you were just dreaming,” suggested Sky.
“That was no dream,” I said, “someone was kneeling beside the bed and looking at me and the person said, “Do you remember me Steve?” “Was the person male or female?” asked Kat. “I am not really sure,” I said, “it was like the person was there, but not really there. I know that sounds crazy, but it was definitely not a dream.” Kat and Crystal remained in our room the rest of the night.
In the morning we had a meeting in the library. No sign of an intruder had been found. “Perhaps you just need a rest,” said Nelson, “away from everything.” “And that might be what our intruder would like,” said Dawn, “to make Steve an easier target.” “Hmm, not a bad thought,” said Rock. “Um, I am not going crazy here everyone,” I said, “I will even talk with Galyna to prove it.”
“Good,” said Nelson, “Galyna, Steve is your subject for the day.” She chuckled. I did talk with her and she watched me closely all day and her verdict was that I was perfectly fine. The next night was quiet, and that day the cats were allowed to come home. Bridgette thought their food had been tampered with, though she was not quite sure.
“I do not like that,” said Annelie, “that would suggest that an intruder was in here.” “Thanks for believing me finally,” I said. “Sorry Steve,” she said, “but it is not easy for someone to get in this place, it is really a fortress.” She was right, we had made it that way, and it was an old fortress built back in the 1600s. That night I was awakened once again by someone touching my hand.
“Do you remember me Steve?” said the woman. I touched Muffin and she woke up, saw the woman, screamed and shot under the blankets immediately. Sky was awake and turned on the light, looking around. I pressed the button again, Red Alert, Intruder!, and everyone was awake and began looking around. “John, Miles, check the library,” I said.
Sky looked at me, puzzled. We had a meeting again in the morning. “Muffin saw our intruder too,” I said, “it was a woman, asking the same question. Then I thought that maybe someone is trying to find out what we do in an emergency.” “Now that is quite possible,” said Nelson. “Did you recognize the woman Muffin?” asked Dawn.
Meow,meow.=Me not know, just see ghost so I hide. “How do you know it was a ghost?” asked Kat. Meow,meow.=I see through her, not can do that with real human people. “I wonder why she asks, Do you remember me?” asked Karen. I look at her, then at Muffin, she is about to meow, but I shake my head…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.